Saina Presses All The Right Buttons

Everything seems pitch-perfect in  the trailer of the Saina Nehwal. The canvas is laid  out a   bit too neatly.The  pushy mother, played  by the talented Meghna Malik who  is typecast as pushy characters,pushes  the  young Saina on the badminton court with  words of wisdom that seem  borrowed from Sanskar  channel:  “There are  two  kinds of people. The ones who  follow the  road and the  ones who  make their own road.You are  the latter.”

Okay then.

Regrettably the film seems to follow the  weatherbeaten road for sports  bio-pic. The  pushy almost bullying parents, the  surly coach(Manav Kaul who specializes playing characters who look either  deprived  of sex  or food, or both), the  cynical remarks, the  sudden fall and then the rise again. Etc etc.

Which is  not  to say that Saina is  not  looking promising.  It is .  It makes all the right moves and  though the Haryanvi accent is  a  bit too thick , Parineeti Chopra  seems  far  more clear-headed here than in her last  release The  Girl On The Train where here smudged  kohl  and  fudged  alcoholism botched up  the  proceedings  .

No  lack of clarity here in Saina. No effort to  create false expectations. This is  a sports  bio-pic about a badminton chap  who …you guessed it…fights all odds. I wonder  if all sports  icons wear  the same hat  that destiny throws  on their head as  they try to  lunge  for  the sky.